We started this week’s assembly on a similar theme to last week! Our Year 6 boys were victorious in the Nottingham City’s Football Competition at Nottingham Forest’s Football Ground last night.

We won our semi-final on penalties 3-2 and the final 2-0. You can watch the highlights of the match on the video below later in the week, which has been brilliantly prepared by our goalkeeper Adam.

VIDEO TO BE UPLOADED!

Following on from last week’s nail biting finish to the match against St Edmund Campion (3-3 after extra time, 4-2 on penalties); we are now through to the Nottingham County’s Semi-Final.  With a home fixture guaranteed we wish our boys all the very best of luck in the next round of the competition.

Music:

It looks as though we may need to purchase a bigger trophy cabinet! Our Junior Band and Orchestra brought back the Parker Cup from the 2012 Derby Arts Festival having wowed the adjudicator with their splendid rendition of ‘Rigaudon’ Purcell and ‘Big Mac March’ Ian McKenzie.

This is the second year in a row that our musicians have won this particular event and we are all looking forward to them playing next Friday in front of the whole school.

Oliver received his Grade 4 (merit) ABRSM examination for his cello. Well done!

Chess:

Congratulations go to Taylor, who played particularly well in the recent East Midland’s Grand Prix meet. He received two trophies, one for winning the first session and probably the most impressive, a trophy for the overall competition.

Cricket:

Unfortunately all our fixtures against Foremarke were rained off. We did manage a few overs, but unfortunately the weather got the better of us.

Reading:

Congratulations go to Joe and Adnan in reaching 50 reading points; Rohan, Daniel 100 points; and Akhilesh and Oliver 400 points.

Mathematics:

The following boys were presented with a range of certificates for learning their times tables:

Mathletics:

Sahrin, Jithin, Alex, Imran and Aadam received their Golden Mathletics certificates.

The Olympic Award this week went to Joseph for his supersonic swim in the Inter House Swimming Gala. On the last leg of the Year 3 relay, Joseph started in 4^th place, half a length behind, but managed to clinch 2^nd place. Well done!

Student of the Week went to Oliver for consistently demonstrating a positive attitude during chess coaching.

And finally…

Following my assembly the other day on the initiative led by the National Trust  ’50 things to do before you’re 11 ¾’ , a number of boys have asked for further details.

If you like having fun (and ticking things off lists) then please click the following link:

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/50things

Personally, I wouldn’t worry about the 11 ¾ tag, as you can work through the list at any age. At 21 ¾ I only have one item yet to do (49-find a geocache), with my personal favourite being 37-Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool.

Have a good weekend whatever numbers you get to tick off!

Our U11 squad consisting of Harvey, Adam, Will, Theo, Luke, Ralph, Daniel, Will and Herbie were magnificent, beating Whitemoor 2-1 in a thrilling final on Wednesday evening at Nottingham Forest’s training ground.

Well done boys and of course Mr Simpson.

Good luck for this afternoon’s match in the Nottingham County’s Quarter Final match-weather permitting!

Chess:
Following on from our impressive performance at the IAPS National Finals, NHJS are proud to announce that we have three England chess players in our ranks. Taylor, Hari and John all qualified for the squad last weekend in Liverpool.

Donald, James, Sahrin and Karam are all also eligible to play at least two games for the England squad.

Congratulations!

Cricket:
Gurvir and Sacheth in Year 6 have made it through to the final selection process for the County U11 Representative team 2012. We are all keeping our fingers crossed that you make it through to the final 13 boys. Good Luck!

Swimming:
Mr Harrison (teacher i/c Senior swimming) organised a ‘Swimathon’ event at NHS on Sunday 30th April, as part of the national fundraising event for Marie Curie Cancer and Sport Relief.

Three Year 6 boys took part – Matthew and Ralph swimming 5km and Luke swimming 2.5km.
Matthew 5km 01:43:09
Ralph 5km 01:48:50
Luke 2.5km 01:00:55

They all performed magnificently and based on this performance, Mr Harrison is looking forward to having the three of them in the Senior School in September!

Junior Memory Championship
The following boys were awarded certificates in the following categories:
Bronze Award:
Ralph, Luke, Sahrin, Donald & James
Silver Award:
Ben, Jithin, Matthew, & Sacheth
Gold Award:
Will and Gurvir (National Finalist)

Reading:
Congratulations go to Toby and Adam in reaching 50 reading points; Rohan, Viraj and George 100 points; and Rohan 400 points.

Mathematics:
Thomas, Oliver, Zain, David, Euan and Harry were presented with a range of certificates for learning their times tables:

Mathletics:
Toby, George, Harry, Ronnie, Anand, Harry, Joshua and Hugo received their Golden Mathletics certificates.

Congratulations also go to 4S who were the first form in the whole school to achieve a 100% record of everyone achieving a gold award. As an extra treat the boys all had extra playtime this morning. Thank goodness it didn’t rain!

The Olympic Award this week went to Herbie for his heroic performance in defence during the U11 Nottingham City Football Final on Wednesday.

Student of the Week went to Archie for his fantastic Geography project.

Well done boys!

Please click the following link for further details on the Ingram Cup:

http://juniormusic.nottinghamhighblogs.net/2012/04/27/ingram-cup-2012/

Congratulations go to Sam, Herbie and George in reaching 50 reading points; Brandon and Henry 100 points; William and Adi 200 points and Thomas 400 points.

The following boys were presented with a range of certificates for learning their times tables:

Sacheth, Harry, Dillon, Hari and Yuvraj were delighted to receive their Golden Mathletics certificates.

The Olympic Award this week went to Alex who is currently the highest points scorer in all year groups in the UK Indoor Athletics Award Scheme.

We had a double award this week for Student of the Week-Euan and Frazer received certificates for settling effortlessly into their new classes. Well done boys!

Special mention must go of course to Donald, Sahrin, James, Taylor, Karam, and Ishaan who cleaned up at the IAPS National Chess Championships, Aldro School, Surrey.

U14 Team Championship 1^st position

U14 Championship Individual Results

1^st Place                Taylor

2^nd Place               Karam

=8^th                        Donald, James & Sahrin

U14 Joint Prize for highest score Taylor and Karam. Karam also received a prize for the ‘best game’.

U11 Joint Prize for highest score: Taylor and Karam.

Well done to the whole team for a marvellous set of results-a truly remarkable team performance in both age categories!

We also had some other amazing news over the Eater break:

Razeen in Year 4 received the following message, having submitted an entry to Chris Evans’ Breakfast Show 500 words competition…

Congratulations! The story you submitted, “The Chase”, is through to the next stage of the Chris Evans Breakfast Show 500 WORDS competition.

Next, it will be sent to the National Literacy Trust for the second stage of the judging process. If it makes it into the Top 50 stories, we will let you know as soon as possible!

We received 74,000 stories and this one is in the top 2,000, which is a brilliant achievement.

Well done and good luck!

Gurvir in Year 6 has been an absolute star in getting through to the National Junior Memory Championship Final. Please read the email sent to Mrs Slater recently…

I have now received the results of this year’s on-line competition from Jonathan Hancock and I am delighted to inform you that one of your pupils has been selected as a finalist to participate in this year’s Junior Memory Championship Final to be held on Sunday 27^th May at London Zoo.

The Pupil is Gurvir!

Congratulations to Gurvir and to everyone at Nottingham High Junior School involved in this competition.

James in Year 6 has obviously been training hard in the swimming pool…

James achieved his Midland Qualifying time in 200 Breast (and 100 Breast) at the weekend so automatically qualifies for the Midland Championships in June. This is particularly significant for him as it means he will be moved up to the next squad of NOVA (B2) in the near future.

In terms of our achievements in school (over the last two days), here’s what we celebrated today:

Reading Awards:

Mathematics Awards:

MFL Awards:

The Olympic Award went to Amun in Year 3 who ran the Sport relief mile, and was the pacemaker for his family. Apparently he was very fast! He did really well and we are very proud of him for doing this. He raised £132.00 alone!! He got a new pen as a treat from his mum and dad.

The Student of the Week went to Arsh in Year 3, after I had received the following email from a parent who was notably impressed by his good manners…

Dear Mr Earnshaw,

Yesterday morning I had to drop in my son’s pens off at school as “I forgot” to put them into their blazers.

I was just about to go into the senior school when I saw a boy from the junior school, and asked him if he was in Y5, very politely he said he wasn’t but could see I was taking something to the school, he offered very kindly to take my son’s pens into his form and give them to him. 

I was very impressed with his politeness and kindness, as I initially said no it was ok I’d take them in, but he said he didn’t mind and that he knew where my son’s form was.  

I thought he was a real credit to the school and his parents!

Brilliant! Well done Arsh.

Monday’s assembly celebrated accomplishments within the classroom, whereas Friday focused on our recent sporting achievements.

Olympic Awards went to:

12 March                  Rishi - Hockey

16 March   James-Rugby

Student of the Week Awards went to:

12 March-Theodore for being an astounding Junior Junior Headmaster (see last blog post for further details)

16 March-Thomas for the effort he consistently puts into his work

Sporting Achievements

Hockey:

National In2Hockey Schools Championships 2011-12 (05.03.12)

The boys had a great time and their behaviour was superb, they were a credit to themselves and the school. The event was very well organised and the competition was also very tough as all 3 schools in our group play hockey from September to March.

We lost our first game 1 – 0 against Linby School, very close game and lots of possession, we let in a soft goal and they defended well.

Second game was against the eventual winners Grosvenor school who didn’t concede a single goal all tournament.

We lost 3 – 0 letting in 3 early goals but holding them 0 – 0 in the second half. They had 21 shot on target and our goalie, Rishi was brilliant. He was our man of the match and a worthy winner of the Olympic award.

Third game was against St Peters and we conceded in the last minute to lose 1 – 0.

Rugby:

U10B vs. Stoneygate          (02.03.12)

Won 55-20

NHJS Inter House Rugby Competition                       (05.03.12)

Year 6

Rugby House Captains:

Ben, Harvey, Herbie & Ben

Ball’s             40       Tonkin’s    15

Trease’s        10       Hardy’s     15

Ball’s             15       Hardy’s     15

Trease’s        30       Tonkin’s    15

Ball’s             10       Trease’s     25

Hardy’s         30       Tonkin’s    0

Year 5

Rugby House Captains:

Joe, James, Archie & Barnaby

Ball’s             15       Tonkin’s  25

Trease’s        15       Hardy’s   10

Ball’s             10       Hardy’s   10

Trease’s        30       Tonkin’s   5

Ball’s             15       Trease’s    35

Hardy’s         10       Tonkin’s   30

(Totals for Years 5 and 6)

Year 4

Rugby House Captains:

James, Takura, Sammy & Sam

Ball’s             5          Tonkin’s  20

Trease’s        5          Hardy’s   25

Ball’s             5          Hardy’s   10

Trease’s        15       Tonkin’s  35

Ball’s             20       Trease’s   5

Hardy’s         10       Tonkin’s  20

Totals for Years 4, 5 and 6

 Year 3 Tag Rugby

Rugby House Captains:

Joshua, Adnan, Oliver & Matthew

Ball’s             20       Tonkin’s  15

Trease’s        20      Hardy’s   0

Ball’s             30       Hardy’s  10

Trease’s        30       Tonkin’s 25

Ball’s             15       Trease’s  20

Hardy’s         25       Tonkin’s 15

Overall Totals

Congratulations to Trease’s House-WELL DONE BOYS!

U10 vs. Leicester Grammar School (07.03.12)

Won 45-40

U11 vs. Highfields, Newark (07.03.12)

Won 95-5

U9B vs. Grosvenor A (12.03.12)

Lost 8-3

U11 vs. Leicester (12.03.12)

Won 42-14

Chess:

Year 4 Chess Tournament at NHJS (15.03.12)

Well done to our teams who came in 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place!

Birmingham and District Schools League Open U14 Rapidplay

John Croasdale was part of the Senior School’s U14 ‘A’ team which won the Birmingham and District Schools League Open U14 Rapidplay at Solihull School.  John won the prize for the best performance on board 7 with his score of 4.5/5 (four wins, one draw).  Our last round victory against last year’s runners-up Haberdashers’ Aske’s was a nail-biting 4.5 – 3.5, but was helped substantially by John’s early win in the match, and another of his wins against Wilson’s School was a crucial part in our 5-3 victory.  It was a good day for the John’s family because elder brother Harry (former pupil of NHJS) picked up the best board 2 prize with his score of 5/5 and Sohum (former pupil of NHJS) also gained board prizes.

Cross Country

U11 Worksop Meet (06.03.12)

4^th place overall

Inter House Cross Country (09.03.12)

Individual Results

Year 3: 1^st Joseph, 2^nd Thomas, 3^rd Dillon

Year 4: 1^st Sammy, 2^nd Yousef, 3^rd Oliver

Year 5: 1^st Sebby, 2^nd Max, 3^rd James

Year 6: 1^st Ralph, 2^nd  Will, 3^rd Will

Team Results

First 6 boys to score for each house

BALLS -      Y3 – 76

                    Y4 – 63

                    Y5- 77   =    289 1^st

                    Y6 – 73

TREASE’S – Y3 – 57

                    Y4 -  83   =  301 2^nd

                   Y5 -  75

                    Y6 -  86

TONKIN’S Y3 -68

                   Y4 – 82   =    308 – 3^rd

                   Y5 – 79

                  Y6 – 79

HARDY’S – 3 – 104

                    4 – 91

                    5 – 83   =    341 – 4^th

                    6 – 63

Football

U10 Indoor 5 a-side tournament @ Harvey Hadden (08.03.12)

Winners

U11 Npower Kids Football Cup @ Oakwood, Derbyshire (15.03.12)

4^th Place

The boys and staff were asked to come to school dressed as a simile. Adan in Year 3 was as straight as an arrow…

and Mr Simpson was as ghastly as a ghoul…

whereas I chose to use as white as a sheet as my theme!

You can read more about our brilliant book day on our English Blog.

We had an incredible amount of achievements  (more so than usual) to celebrate today. It seemed quite appropriate to announce several winners of various competitions that we have been running in the lead up to Book Day.

Firstly, congratulations go to Skye who won our book mark design competition for 100 reading points. Hopefully we’ll be able to show you the book mark in action once we have received them from the manufacturers.

Secondly, congratulations to the boys in Year 4 and Year 6 who all received certificates for their exceptional creative writing entries in the Senior School’s Creative Writing Competition. (Again, please see our English Blog for further details).

Back into familiar territory, George, Zayem and Rohan all collected certificates for 50 reading points:

Congratulations go to Dillon, Joseph and Hassan for 100 reading points, book marks will be of course issued in due course!

£5 book tokens for 200 reading points were presented to Sebby, Will and Max:

Our budding mathematicians received certificates for learning their times tables:

A special well done goes to the following boys in achieving 1000 points for a Golden Mathletics Certificate.

Theo presented James with his certificate after he had returned from his music lesson. More about Theo later!

Finn and Ted (as absorbent as a sponge) collected bronze award certificates for 300 housepoints:

As I was now suffering from presenting so many awards-not to mention the heat inside the sheet- I thought it was an opportune moment to hand over to the Junior Junior Headmaster, Master Theo (as smart as Mr Earnshaw), who presented the following awards:

Olympic Award-Donald

Donald has improved week on week during the hockey sessions and showed great tenacity during in the small sided games-good luck on Monday Donald!

Student of the Week-Matthew

Matthew was given the award for his consideration of others in his role as Swimming Captain during the recent lifesaving lessons at School. Matthew had packed extra pairs of pyjamas in case anyone forgot theirs! Well done Matthew.

Theo’s work was not yet done as we had other sporting successes to celebrate and certificates to present:

NHJS Rugby Festival: Friday 24th February

1^st Nottingham High Junior School – Won 3 – Drew 1 – Lost 0 – 10pts

2^nd Elms – Won 2 – Drew 2 – 8pts

3^rd – Grosvenor – Won 2 – Drew 1 – Lost 1 – 7pts

4^th – Nottingham High Junior School – Won 1 – Drew 0 – Lost 3- 3pts

5^th – Stoneygate – Won 0 – Drew 0 – Lost 4 –  0pts

U10 & U11 Bromsgove Swim Relays

On Monday 27^th March, 2012, five Junior School boys went to the 28^th Invitational Relay Swimming gala hosted by Bromsgrove School and held at Worcester pool. Twenty five schools, many of them being boarding schools, took part in the event with ten schools entering the boys U11 relay events. Our Medley team came third in their heat and qualified for the A final (five fastest qualifying times). In the A final our medley team swam amazingly well, knocking two seconds off their qualifying time and finishing off in second position overall thanks to a fantastic “catch up” swim by captain Matthew. Sammy then swam up two age groups with our Freestyle relay team. They came first in their heat and qualified for the A team finals and then knocked a second off that time to finish second overall in the Final (just three seconds off the record). It was an amazing gala with our swimming teams performing outstandingly well, the best our school has attained for several years against some very tough competition! The medals and certificates were fully deserved. Well done!

Split Times:

Medley Heat                                                    

Luke-21.27

James-21.60

Ralph-19.40

Matthew-15.58

Medley Final

Luke-21.46

James-21.15

Ralph-18.69

Matthew-15.75

Finished 2nd overall

Freestyle Relay

James-17.19

Sammy-16.70

Ralph-16.59

Matthew-15.98

Freestyle Relay Final

James-16.93

Sammy-16.38

Ralph-16.42

Matthew-15.76

Finished 2nd overall

Overall Positions

Medley

1^st Bromsgrove School

2^nd Nottingham High Junior School

3^rd Dragon School

4^th Warwick Prep School

Freestyle

1^st Warwick Prep School

2^nd Nottingham High Junior School

3^rd Bromsgrove School

4^th Dragon School

U9B Rugby vs. Stoneygate-Won 45-0

Tuesday 28th March

On Tuesday 28^th February, 2012, boys from Years 4, 5, and 6 represented the school at a home swimming gala against Salterford House. The gala started with the medley relays for each year group and then the individual events took place with the Year 6s swimming 50 m events. Finally the gala finished off with freestyle relays for Years 4, 5 and 6. There was some super swimming from both schools and some very close finishes in places. The final scores were as follows:

1^st NHJS A team 100 points

2^nd NHJS B team 61points

3^rd Salterford A team 48 points

4^th Salterford B team 46 points

Many thanks to all the staff and also the senior school boys who helped out at the gala. Well done to all the swimmers who took part-a super swimming gala, with good, positive encouragement and a great result.

Thursday 1st March

U11 Football vs. Seagrave-Won 4-1 (we are now through to the semi-finals)

NHJS Chess Tournament

I think Theo’s hand was ready to drop off after handing out so many certificates!

He certainly deserved his round of applause at the end for doing such a fantastic job. Perhaps I could get him to write next week’s blog as well!

There is certainly a lot to be proud of, both in and out of the classroom and Dr Carol Roberts, School Governor, was on hand to see the range of awards that were given out.

Dr Roberts then went on to help out in our mathematics lessons over the course of the morning and enjoyed the delights of ‘Fast Food Friday’ in our Dining Hall with our boys!

The first award to be given out was a reading certificate for 100 points to Rohan in Year 3. Usually the boys are presented with a book mark, but the boys have been busy designing a brand new book mark, with the winning design announced in our special ‘Book Day’ Achievement assembly next Friday, where our boys will be asked to come to school dressed as a simile!

Well done Rohan on achieving 100 reading points:

Razeen in Year 4 received a book token to the value of £5 for 200 reading points:

In Mathematics, Adnan and William collected their certificates-well done boys!

The following boys received the wonderful news that they had all achieved Mathletics Gold Award status and were visibly impressed to receive their certificates!

Following the recent assessments in MFL, the boys pictured below received certificates for achieving super marks-many of the boys achieved full marks-a super achievement in itself!

James and James collected silver awards for 500 housepoints with Matthew and Rohan, the proud recipients of bronze certificates for 300 housepoints:

The anticipation for the Olympic Award this week was beautifully captured by Mr Caldwell this week:

Well done to Alex who received the award for his debut appearance for the U9 rugby team on Monday. No wonder he’s smiling-well done Alex!

Student of the Week this week was Joe in Year 3, who has settled extremely well into the Junior School. Congratulations!

Sporting Results:

U9 Rugby vs. Grosvenor: Won 75-15

Report on Swimming Gala vs.QEGS, Wakefield

On Thursday 23^rd February, the U9s, 10s and 11s A and B teams represented Nottingham High Junior School at a swimming gala at home against QEGS Wakefield. This was a “first time fixture” in many years and there was great anticipation on both sides. After the medley relays the scores reflected everyone’s thoughts  : it’s going to be close! Our A team was leading with 24 points, QEGS A team had 22 points and both B teams were on 10 points. After some fantastic individual events the scores were: our A team on 64 points, QEGS A team on 59 points, QEGS B team on 36 points and NHJS B team on 28 points. After some exciting finishes during the Freestyle relay events, the final scores were: NHJS A team 1^st with 86 points, QEGS 2^nd with 85 points, QEGS B team came 3^rd with 46 points and NHJS B team came 4^th with 36 points. So close, with only one point between first and second!

Some great swimming as individuals and as teams against some very tough competition-well done boys.

Many thanks to our parent timekeepers, Senior School staff (Mr Harrison, Mr Brown and Mr PJ Smith) and spectators for their continued support.

Thank you also to Ralph for reading out the above report during our assembly:

Yesterday (Thursday) marked a first for me at the Junior School. Our Eco council have tried to attract wildlife into the School grounds with their eco–garden and nesting boxes. I have personally seen squirrels, magpies, pigeons and sparrows in abundance, but never a pheasant!

I took this picture of Felix, our neighbourhood pheasant, perched on the playground wall next to the tram stop. Let’s hope he copes well with the recent cold spell!

The cold spell has played havoc with our games sessions, rugby fixtures and cross country event at Wollaton Park (rescheduled for Monday 26^th March-tbc). Having said this, we have managed to keep our boys active, particularly as they have been working really hard during our assessment week.

Please do take the time to see how successful the Ceilidh taster session was last Friday with our Junior boys in the video below. The best bit is 7 mins 10 sec into the video-WELL WORTH A LOOK!

I was also delighted to have James come to see me with his wonderful artwork. James was inspired by the beautiful sunrise on his journey to NHJS the other morning and decided to paint it during his art lesson. Well done James-a fine example of aerial perspective!

Finally, before we celebrate the achievements of our boys, may I take this opportunity to wish you all a relaxing and enjoyable half term!

Achievement Assembly:

Reading Awards:

Well done to Josh and Ismail on receiving their 50 reading point certificates and Jack for his £10 book token – 400 reading points!

As our boys are avid readers, we have run out of bookmarks, so as a half term homework activity, the boys have been set the task of designing a new bookmark for the Junior School. Please see PlannerLive for further details. Good luck one and all!

Mathematics:

The following boys were presented with their mathematics certificates. Well done on learning your tables boys!

Bravo to William who received a certificate from his tennis club for extra effort. Keep up the hard work William!

Olympic Award:

Thomas was immense in the Year 3 Tag Rugby – joint top try scorer, never grumbled once despite the cold and feeling some injustices in decisions. A top, top attitude and never gave up even when everyone was cold and deflated in the final match. Congratulations Thomas!

Oliver, Matthew and Oliver all received their bronze awards for 300 housepoints and Adi received his silver award for 500 housepoints.

Student of the week:

Will for coping admirably throughout assessment week with his arm in plaster!

Sporting Results:

Our C & D chess teams have been in action last night in the Nottinghamshire B Team League.

Here are the results hot off the press:

1st Place NHJS D (15.5 points)

2nd Place NHJS C (14 points)

3rd Jesse Gray B (12 points)

4th Abbey Road (11 points)

5th Jesse Gray A (7.5 points)

Congratulations to all who took part. It was a very successful evening. Well done.

Mr Fear announced the fantastic news at the end of proceedings that all of our Year 6 boys passed the Senior School entrance examination-congratulations boys!

Mr Fear also announced that the following seven boys had achieved academic scholarships: Sahrin, Sacheth, Ben, Oliver, Jithin, Hari and Bilal.

A special mention must of course go to all the teachers who helped our boys achieve exceptional results this year-thank you one and all.

The following boys received reading certificates and a book token:

Well done to the following boys in receiving their various mathematics certificates:

This week also marked the first batch of boys to achieve the coveted Golden Mathletics Certificates-well done boys. I’m sure Mr Fear was very impressed!

Oliver received the Olympic Award this week for being the Year 5 man of the tournament at Bradford:

The Student of the Week was Skye, for his authentic Spanish Armada diary:

Sporting Achievements:

Bradford Rugby Tournament:

Commiserations go to our boys who came away from the tournament empty handed, but nonetheless in good spirits!

Year 3-Played 4, drew 1 and lost 3

Year 4-Played 4, won 1, drew 1 and lost 2

Year 5-Played 4, lost 4

Year 6-Played 4, lost 4

Mrs Whittamore’s Report from the IAPS Swimming regional rounds held at Leicester:

On Wednesday 1^st February, I was proud to take four under 11 swimmers and five under 10 swimmers to the regional rounds of a national swimming competition for independent schools. This was held at Leicester Grammar school.

The boys were very excited about participating and even more so when it was announced that 4,500 swimmers take part in the national IAPS competition (not all at once!!)-that’s 300 schools which take part in 35 regional rounds up and down the country between January and March.

The boys knew it was all to swim for-similar to time trials for a huge competition. There were seven schools at the Leicester regional round-The Elms, Birkdale, Stamford, Brook, Foremarke, Fairfield and us, making for a super atmosphere.

The gala commenced with the Freestyle relay teams in which our u10s came second with a time of 1.14.82 and then the u11s came storming into first place with a time of 1.09.44. Next it was the individuals-

Name                                     Event                         Time                           Position in heat

The gala then finished with the Medley relays-our U10 team came 3^rd with a time of 1.34.23 and the U11s came 1^st with a super time of 1.24.54.

The following boys received reading certificates, book marks and a book token to reward their endeavours in the world of fiction and non-fiction:

Well done to the following boys in attaining their 12×12 certificates:

James received the Olympic Award this week for his creative
and enthusiastic approach in the recent ‘Movement to Music’ unit of work:

The Student of the Week was James, for an outstanding act of kindness:

Sporting Achievements:

Well done the  U9 & U11 Cross Country Teams who came first in each age range at the Highfields Autumn Cross-Country Meet!

Individual Results:

U9′s:

1st Sammy

5th Ben

6th Yousef

10th Oliver

15th Joshua

17th Harry

19th Alex

23rd Sam

U11 Individual Results

3rd Ralph Wills

5th Sebby Gould

7th Will

9th Theo

12th Ben

13th James

19th Max

20th James

And Finally…

As of 7:00AM (GMT) 20th January 2012, Bryony Balen became the youngest Britain to
ski to the Geographic South Pole from the Hercules Inlet! Overall Bryony and
the team have skied 1134.9km (705miles) over a period of 56 days. The journey
took her across the planets coldest continent, where temperatures reached as
low as -45°C (-49°F) and facing the daily struggle of high winds, white-outs,
sastrugi, and an almost permanent uphill climb!

In the last two days of the expedition the team trekked 67km, a
huge push to get there just a little sooner! Bryony slept after the long days (and nights)skiing, followed by a visit to the centre and the pole marker before heading back to
the Union Glacier Base (via aeroplane) at 4PM (GMT).

Naturally, she is ecstatic!

Congratulations Bryony and a big  thumbs up from all of our boys!